Not applicable.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of secure enclosures in general and in particular to a soft sided portable safe construction that is adapted to be secured to a fixed object.
2. Description of Related Art
As can be seen by reference to the following U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,437,367; 3,762,345; 5,730,009; and, 6,109,434, the prior art is replete with myriad and diverse protective enclosure constructions.
While all of the aforementioned prior art constructions are more than adequate for the basic purpose and function for which they have been specifically designed, they are uniformly deficient with respect to their failure to provide a simple, efficient, and practical soft sided safe construction that includes a novel combined closure and securing arrangement that not only prevents access into the interior of the enclosure, but also allows the enclosure to be securely connected to a stationary object.
While all of the prior art constructions provide a secure enclosure, they do not make any provision with respect to preventing the enclosure from being removed from a particular location.
As a consequence of the foregoing situation, there has existed a longstanding need for a new and improved type of secure portable enclosure that incorporates an enclosure retention means as part of the enclosure securing means; and, the provision of such a construction is the stated objective of the present invention.
Briefly stated, the soft sided portable safe construction that forms the basis of the present invention comprises in general an enclosure unit, a cable unit and an optional hotel safe adapter unit wherein the enclosure unit and the adapter unit are fabricated from ballistic cloth and the cable unit is fabricated from braided steel cable.
As will be explained in greater detail further on in the specification, the enclosure unit includes an enclosure member having a lid element hingedly connected to a receptacle element and provided with a zipper element and a plurality of looped panel elements each having a looped cylindrical portion which is adapted to receive the cable unit and overlie selected portions of the zipper element.
As a result of this arrangement, when the ends of the cable unit are threaded through the looped panel elements and are connected together by a conventional lock, the lid element cannot be disengaged from contact with the receptacle element, even in those instances wherein the zipper element is not operatively employed.